


Dress

by mxrose



Category: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (TV 2016)
Genre: Character Study, Gen, rowdy three are mentionioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-29
Updated: 2018-04-29
Packaged: 2019-04-29 21:16:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14481342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mxrose/pseuds/mxrose
Summary: She had never been much of a dress-up type of person, even before- well, before she stopped going out.





	Dress

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this a while back for the 30 Days of Dirk on tumblr. I only wrote one day and then my brain exploded, so here it is, I suppose. Original Post: https://ultra-trash-nerd.tumblr.com/post/167071980470/day-1-dress

She had never been much of a dress-up type of person, even before- well, before she stopped going out. Leggings, t-shirt, jean jacket, a perfectly fine outfit if you asked her. Even when she was younger, she had always resisted when her mother had tried to dress her in frilly, holiday clothes, hiding under the bed, tucking herself into closets, and escaping out into the yard (one year she had managed to vault the fence and take off running down the street dressed in her pajamas, barefoot, hair streaming behind her, her mother attempting to follow in extremely impractical heels. She was allowed to wear pants that year - dress pants, of course.)

It frustrated her parents to no end, “why can’t you be more like Todd?” “He never makes this much of a fuss.” “Look at how nicely he’s standing!” Which was bullshit, of course, seeing as how once their eyes left him, off came the ties and the dress shirts never stayed pressed for long. Sometimes he would even sneak tennis shoes in for her and himself so that they would at least feel comfortable. Thinking back, Todd was just as much of a gremlin as she was, he was just more quiet about it. As a child, all her passions would bubble to the surface, making deception impossible for her. Whereas Todd had an easier time getting adults to believe his stories, she had never been able to get away with anything. When they teamed up though, good lord, look out. Nothing could stop them. They were something of a holy terror when they wanted to be.

As they got older, this dynamic faded a bit, but not all the way. She had rebelled loudly, going to clubs and not taking anything too seriously. Todd rebelled too, being in a band wasn’t the most respectable of professions (according to Aunt Esther, at least), but at least he was doing something with himself. She felt directionless, going wherever her scuffed boots would take her. She wasn’t upset about this, exactly, more like irritated. Sometimes she wished something would happen, something to give her purpose.

And then it did. She contracted pararibulitis, and that was that. Gone was the late nights, gone was her friendships, and gone was her rebellious spirit. (Or so she thought.)

If she had occasionally felt directionless before, it was now the new norm. Days blended into weeks, weeks into months. She realized she had been wearing the same clothes days in a row, and she found herself unable to care. Todd stopped by every so often, with money when he could spare it, always willing to help her around the house, always with an encouraging word on how he had recovered. (Maybe if she had been better at reading people, she would have noticed how he would tense up, and unreadable expression briefly flashing across his face each time he told her that it would get better. But then again, he had always been the better liar.)

Life was an endless blur of worn jeans and even more worn out t-shirts, until one day, a dark van, music pounding, pulled in across the street across from her house. And the rest is history.

_“I mean, Todd, come on, they already gave me a jacket."_


End file.
